Another Tiki Shoes Revamp!

Following my successful Tiki Shoes Revamp last year, I have the urge to do it again!


I saw these gorgeous shoes on the irregular Choice website and fell in love with them, only to be disappointed that they have very non-vegan suede uppers.


There's a leopard version that appear to have fabric uppers, but I think that the trim round the sole is leather, and the little leaves on the fruit look like it too, plus I don't actually like them that much - I think the small print makes them look too busy, and therefore less striking.


Also... I don't have £64.99. What I do have is a marvellous boyfriend willing to enter into ebay battles on my behalf while I'm out doing a stall. Luckily, nobody decided to engage him in battle for these, and I got them for £26.50. I think having a vintage carved wooden sole is much better than a modern moulded plastic one!


The uppers are brown felt backed with thin fake leather, and the felt is quite watermarked and needs replacing. I plan to do leatherette uppers covered with either a coral coloured velvet in the style of the red Irregular Choice ones, or with straw braiding to match this hat, and add a big bunch of fruit and flowers! (Picture for Kalandra Jane Designs by Berni Harris).


I really want the coral velvet, but can't find any anywhere - only ribbon, or some silk velvet on etsy, which obviously isn't vegan either. Booo!

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Gratuitous Vintage Shoe Pictures

Hello vintage lovers, and foot fetishists who have stumbled here accidentally due to my use of the words 'gratuitous shoe pictures'. Today I will be showing you some of the shoes I have acquired in the last few months, and for some reason or another haven't shown to you! There will also be some tips on vintage shoe buying.


This first pair aren't vintage at all but they are going to go fabulously with my Summer outfits. Coral red was in my Autumn/Winter colour picks although I didn't manage to feature it much, but my Spring/Summer colour picks will feature a more pastel/bright version of the same tone. These are £18 from TU at Sainsbury's supermarkets (in their current collection, I got them at the weekend), and they're really comfy. I also got a nail polish that matches exactly in a swap with a friend, it's Bourjois Tangerine Fatal.


Pic from pamperedandpolished.co.uk blog.


Amazing black velvet 1950s stilettos from RevolvingStyles on etsy. My friend Paul gave me cash for my birthday, so I bought these. They're the superspy shoes from my birthday wishes post! The heels are so curvaceous, and despite having some marks to the soles, the linings and uppers of these look like they've never been worn.


1980s black velvet stilettos... yeah, yeah, they're almost exactly like the ones above. But they were £2.99 in a charity shop, had never been worn, and I only have one other pair of black shoes.


Delicious 1940s red velvet, gift from a friend <3


Cinderella shoes! I got these back in October so I have no idea why I haven't posted about them yet, seeing as they are the most beautiful shoes I own. When Brittany of Va-Voom Vintage posted these on her blog, I couldn't move my fingers fast enough to write her a message asking for them to be reserved! I paid a visit to her etsy shop and snapped these up at a very reasonable price. These things are pretty scarce in the UK, and even scarcer in a size actually wide enough to squeeze in a modern foot - they're just wide enough for me to rotate my trotters into comfortably.

Here's a few more pictures of my 1950s lucite lovelies, all these pics are copyright of Va-Voom Vintage.




There were a few little stones missing, so I replaced them with some vintage ones I had, from the same period.

Now, to the vintage shoe shopping tips.

In this shoe, you can see two sets of letters. This denotes a high quality shoe - the letters are separate width fittings for the heel and toebox, and would only be found in custom-fitted shoes. Widths generally went from AAAAA to B or C. AAAAA can also stand for AAAAArgh these vintage shoes are far too narrow for my portly modern feet and are making me want to chop off my own toes.


Then again - I have found that these fittings can vary between manufacturers and even between decades - I am a modern UK 5.5, US 8 with a very slightly wider than average foot, but I have 1950s shoes that are tight on me at size US 8B, Fit fine at US 8.5AAAA, and 1940s ones that are snug at supposedly the exact same size, 8.5AAAA. So, in conclusion - don't try to use these fittings as an exact size guide, just take them as a sign of a very well manufactured shoe that was built to last, but go by measurements instead.

Measure a shoe that fits you very well across the widest point of the sole at the ball of the foot, the length along the insole, and the distance across the vamp (the front part of a shoe that covers the top of your foot). If you buy on etsy which is a very good source for vintage shoes, most sellers will list this information. If buying at vintage fairs, take a tape measure and a clean stocking - there's no point trying shoes on when you're wearing massive thick socks or have a sweaty foot which will make the shoes stick and feel uncomfortable.

Another hugely important thing to remember is that the width of your bare foot flat on the floor is not the width you need in a heeled shoe - the sole of the shoe will be considerably narrower due to the way heeled shoes hold the foot, so as I have stated before, measure a shoe that fits you well, not your foot.


Metal heel and toe taps - these are another sign of a well-made shoe, especially the presence of toe taps. Many vintage shoes have hard leather soles, so check these aren't worn out or rotten, and have leather heel taps replaced with matching coloured plastic or metal ones by a good cobbler if you intend to wear the shoes outdoors much, as these will wear down very quickly and cause damage to the heels.


Shoes with different writing in each one show that they were made exclusively for a fancy shoe shop or department store. One logo shows the maker's name, the other the shop. These were good quality shoes made for upmarket outlets. Good names to look for are De Liso Debs from the 40s, Roger Vivier, Spring-O-Lators, Magnin department stores, and Johansen from the 50s, Daniel Green in boudoir slippers, celebrity endorsed lines like Jayne Mansfield shoes, and of course designer treasures such as Ferragamo.


The words 'hand lasted' mean that the fabric or leather of a shoe has been stretched out over the foot-shaped mould by a human, not by a machine. This is generally a sign of quality, but in the 50s and earlier hand lasting was still commonplace anyway, so don't let it sway you too much. Look at the quality of the stitching, the materials used, and whether they have deteriorated over the years making them too fragile to wear.


A shoe stretcher. One or a pair is an invaluable purchase for anyone wating to wear vintage shoes. If your feet are very much a modern size, you'll probably find width an issue when wearing vintage, and this handy gadget is great for gently easing out vintage shoes without putting any undue pressure on one part of the shoe or creating creases in the material. They put equal, firm pressure on all areas of the shoe that the wooden part is in contact with, and are adjustable to many different sizes and foot shapes.


Using a shoe stretcher to gently reshape vintage footwear is highly preferable to trying to wear shoes in, as it preserves their shape and avoids damage to your precious vintage items. Be gentle though, adjusting your stretcher just a tiny bit each day over several days - you're not going to make a shoe whole sizes bigger, or make a shoe you can't get the width of your foot into comfortable to wear. Be careful and remember that these are historical items, you're their custodian, so care for them well.

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Outfit post - Winter roses

I'm not feeling up to much other than catching up on work at the moment, so here is a little outfit/hair post. This is just what I wore to go shopping then to swimming on Wednesday.


Coat - On sale for £18 (I paid £45!) - very.co.uk
Jeans - Freddies of Pinewood
Black velvet gloves - Accessorize, about ten years ago
Scarf of amazingness - knitted by my mum in the 70s, check out her brand new blog!


40s Style sweater - TK Maxx (why is it TK Maxx here and TJ Maxx in the States?)


Here's my hair. I'd just brushed out a beehive and decided to do something with it while it was all full of volume from the hairspray remnants. My hair isn't really long enough for a snood, but it fills it out quite nicely when my hair is all fuzzed out like this. Snood crocheted by my sister, have a look at her blog for more vintage sewing, knitting and crochet.


Here's the front, I was pleased with my rolls that day, shame I had to brush them out a couple of hours later to go swimming! The rose bracelet was a Christmas gift from my friend Louella.


Here are the shoes I have on above - Dacey by Rocket Dog, from Amazon on sale. I wanted something suitable for Winter, vegan, in a neural-ish colour, and which would not look out of place with a variety of vintage-styled outfits. I chose the weirdest colour but there are four others, and while it's described as 'tan' the butterscotch yellow colour of these shoes fits in with my Autumn/Winter colour picks so matches my wardrobe plan.

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Birthdays, with beautiful things and added trepidation.

So, in nine days I will turn 26. I'm not really looking forward to it... it will signify the beginning of my 'late' twenties, the end of youth. The horror!


I am looking forward to the actual day though, my friend Fiona has kindly booked the day off work so we can spend the whole afternoon trawling the local charity shops, then in the evening Aerospace Boyfriend and I have a table booked at Bistro 1847, Manchester's swanky vegetarian and vegan restaurant where I went for a delectable meal just before Christmas with Miss Matilda, her fiancé and Old Fashioned Susie.

I was also thinking about having a party at home, but whereas I imagine my parties to look like this...


...the reality is it'd probably end like this...


...so I will probably just organise a trip to the Chinese buffet with a few friends like I do every year when I invariably leave my birthday plans to the last minute.


Mmm, buffet.

I've already received my presents from Aerospace boyfriend, look at my gorgeous little birthday chaps!


On the right is Herschel, I haven't got a name for the green and white fella yet.

So, onto the birthday dreaming... there's no way I'm getting any of these things, and I can't afford them myself, so do feel free to buy these things for yourselves to remove the temptation of my etsy watch list.

This vintage plus-sized stretchy knit dress from that purveyor of all things enviable Butch Wax Vintage... if her stock is that good, her personal wardrobe must be absolutely phenomenal!


I would team it with these chic 1950s black velvet or these delicious black satin stilettos (I want them both so much!), a mini beret and my black catseye sunglasses, then I would pretend to be a glamourous French spy, conducting lascivious affairs in order to extract top secret microfilms from the Russians.



Next something more cutesy... this rare pink lucite adorable swan brooch, and this useful vintage seahorses sweater guard, for holding cardigans oh-so-frivolously round the shoulders.



This one is sort of a necessity... I've now been going swimming (almost) every Wednesday evening for a year, swimming a mile each time, and my swimsuit is shot. It's a plain black tankini I got when I was eighteen but never wore, I took the tags off it last January and this January it is full of saggy, see-through patches where the chlorine has broken down the fibres. What I really want to replace it is one of these gorgeous swimsuits from For Luna, endorsed by the legendary MGM aqua-spectacular star Esther Williams whose engrossing autobiography I recently read.


The 'All For Eve' lipstick by Daniel sandler, which is vegan and supports research into women's cancers.


Miss L Fire Tahiti sandals, perfect for Summer, with a practical low wedge heel and in colours I actually wear!


These amazing Irregular Choice Chinese satin wedges... because you can never have enough glittery red shoes! Plus they fit in perfectly with my current Oriental obsession... I'd wear them with a devastating cheongsam and swan about covered in lotus blossoms.


Oh how I wish these adorable bastards were vegan, curse you Irregular Choice and your continued use of dead cow skins! I NEED red shoes with little plastic bluebirds all over them! Especially seeing as my feet have shrunk for no apparent reason, so I'm now a size five-ish instead of a six-ish.


My other big wish is a proper musical saw, I'm finding that I can make a lot of very exciting spooky noises on my vintage woodsaw, but it's proving impossible to coax a real tune from it. Aerospace boyfriend has a video on his phone to prove this... it features me doing a very tortured double-chinned violin face, and he insists on showing it to everybody.


...and that's about it for the things I desire but can't afford... that and everything on my Amazon wishlist.

Birthday shenanigans will no doubt be documented here in a couple of weeks, until then I shall continue to live in dread. Toodle pip!

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There's no place like home...

There's no place like home... there's no place like home... but who'd want to stay home when you could go out wearing these shoes and delight the eyes of everyone you meet?


These beauties are my latest purchase, an exclusive to Schuh by Red or Dead. They were sold out in their Manchester store, as I imagine they are up and down the country due to their squeal-inducing desirability, so I bought them online with free delivery after trying on the plain black leather version instore for fit. The glitter version is in manmade materials so suitable for discerning vegan tootsies, and is available in shimmering silver too.


I love the shape of the heel, which is quite reminiscent of curvy 1940s styles. I plan to get lots of wear from these as being ruby coloured they also fit in with my Autumn wardrobe plan, some pieces from which I have completed and will be showing you all soon!

This week I also picked up the cherry print duvet cover and pillowcases pictured above, they're lovely and from Tesco.

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Shoemaking - carved tiki shoes revamp!

A couple of months ago I bought some cheap vintage carved shoes on etsy. I don't think they're 1950s, maybe 70s? Anyway, despite being deadstock the leatherette uppers weren't in the best condition, they looked like they'd been stored somewhere damp. Then, to top it off, they were so tight I couldn't even get my feet in! So I decided to revamp them... here's what I did!


First I removed the uppers using pliers, and put the decorative tacks aside. I made a new paper pattern for the uppers, measuring against my foot as I went.


I cut out new uppers from tropical barkcloth, adding a quarter inch seam allowance. I also cut linings from red fake leather, with no seam allowance.


Next I used these Miss L Fire shoes to make an ankle strap pattern from paper, but as I knew the ends would not be sewn in I made them rounded, and big enough to acommodate a metal eyelet.



I used fabric adhesive to stick the seam allowances in on the uppers and ankle straps, then stitched together the barkcloth outer pieces and fake leather linings.



Next I used small nails to attach the uppers to the wooden soles, and added the decorative tacks to cover the small nail heads and make the uppers more secure.


The wooden soles already had holes drilled through them, so I used nylon cord to thread the ankle straps onto them, after hammering metal eyelets into the strap ends. I knotted the cord and melted it a little.



Next I threaded small buckles onto flat elastic, and firmly machine stitched them in place between the ankle strap outer and lining.


Holes were punched in the straps using a large needle...


...ta daaaa! Finished!

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